SONNETS TO ORPHEUS

Sonnets to Orpheus is a multidisciplinary song cycle for voice, string quartet, ukulele and harmonium, set to Stephen Mitchell’s translation of Rainer Maria Rilke’s cycle of poems which has been called an “utter acceptance of everything that is alive and earthly… the wholeness, the transfigured body of these poems, is a return to the simplest human experiences of seeing and breathing, beyond thought.”

Only in a city such as Los Angeles would we be able to conceive of a project that holds space for exploring the lines between theatre, film and concert. We are creating an immersive sonic and visual environment that transcends the form of the song cycle.

Sonnet 4, And it was almost a girl. Composition: Danielle Birrittella; String arrangement: Derek Stein

ALL THE PRETTY LITTLE HORSES

A contemporary performance project between a dancer, musician and fine artist that contemplates the expectation of motherhood, the reality of daughterhood and the actuality of mothers not being able to be “mothers" - the elastic relationship of roles between parent and child - the memory and presumption of intimacy, and the reality of distance.

We explore how new technologies play a role in creating invisible walls that offer the guise of connection but may, in fact, be the architecture of control and separation in the rapidly shifting landscape of family dynamics.

We juxtapose our own text messages and email exchanges with the vulnerability of lullaby, the materials of domesticity and those of ephemeral reflectiveness, the loss of physical versus emotional control, and the adaptive relationship to the mother through movement. Working across mediums of dance, music and theatre, we are exploring the universal themes of memory, history and inheritance through the lens of our personal stories.

DIAPENTE QUINTET

Performances are inspired by unexpected arrangements of existing pieces and collaborations across mediums of poetry, dance, and fine art.Informed by the eclectic musical backgrounds of each of its members, we find a convergent language between classical music, jazz, folk and new technologies.

SAND/BOX

An international sandcastle competition, the Portuguese sailor music of fado,cabecudos, gigantone, almajoa, astrology and the occult come together to explore the various incarnations of male-female love.

With source material from Fernando Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet, Joseph Campbell, and oddly nostalgic Neil Diamond records, two performers attempt to navigate the world of saudade.

"I have cultivated several personalities within myself. I constantly cultivate personalities. Each of my dreams, immediately after I dream it, is incarnated into another person, who then goes on to dream it, and I stop."- Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet